Ad of the Day: Mitsubishi

This is such a great and simple idea, it's surprising no one's thought of it before (I know, I know, you're going to tell me someone has done it before): Demonstrate your vehicle's handling and resilience by test-driving it on the "world's most dangerous road"—i.e., the Yungas Road in Bolivia, better known as the "Road of Death." Some 200-300 people reportedly die each year on the road, which has terrifyingly steep terrain, sheer drop-offs of more than 1,800 feet, no guard rails to speak of, and just a narrow, single lane. The road, leading out of La Paz, was carved into the hillside by Paraguayan prisoners in the 1930s and climbs to 15,260 feet before rapidly dropping to 3,900 feet at the town of Coroico. Oh, there's also typically lots of fog, and parts of the road have waterfalls cascading over them. Lovely. It's actually not surprising that automotive creatives haven't wanted to go there, but the team at 180LA did, taking an Outlander and Outlander Sport for a nice pleasant drive that did not, apparently, end in death. The ad below is a trailer for the website, MitsubishiCars.com/DangerousRoad, which is supposed to go live sometime on Thursday (update: it is now live) and features a 360-degree view of the test drive, along with other vertigo-inducing goodies. "Today it's about what a brand does as well as what it says," said William Gelner, executive creative director at 180LA. "We didn't want to just talk about Mitsubishi's All-Wheel Control, we wanted to prove it by actually taking on the world's most dangerous road. We documented the whole event, every hair-raising turn, and allow people to ride shotgun with a 360 cam." That commute into the city on Highway 9 should be a breeze by comparison.

This is such a great and simple idea, it's surprising no one's thought of it before (I know, I know, you're going to tell me someone has done it before): Demonstrate your vehicle's handling and resilience by test-driving it on the "world's most dangerous road"—i.e., the Yungas Road in Bolivia, better known as the "Road of Death." Some 200-300 people reportedly die each year on the road, which has terrifyingly steep terrain, sheer drop-offs of more than 1,800 feet, no guard rails to speak of, and just a narrow, single lane. The road, leading out of La Paz, was carved into the hillside by Paraguayan prisoners in the 1930s and climbs to 15,260 feet before rapidly dropping to 3,900 feet at the town of Coroico. Oh, there's also typically lots of fog, and parts of the road have waterfalls cascading over them. Lovely. It's actually not surprising that automotive creatives haven't wanted to go there, but the team at 180LA did, taking an Outlander and Outlander Sport for a nice pleasant drive that did not, apparently, end in death. The ad below is a trailer for the website, MitsubishiCars.com/DangerousRoad, which is supposed to go live sometime on Thursday (update: it is now live) and features a 360-degree view of the test drive, along with other vertigo-inducing goodies. "Today it's about what a brand does as well as what it says," said William Gelner, executive creative director at 180LA. "We didn't want to just talk about Mitsubishi's All-Wheel Control, we wanted to prove it by actually taking on the world's most dangerous road. We documented the whole event, every hair-raising turn, and allow people to ride shotgun with a 360 cam." That commute into the city on Highway 9 should be a breeze by comparison.